The ASA sets: Part I

 Remember those ASA sets I purchased recently? There were so many fun photos in those sets I had to dedicate a few posts to them.

The cards were produced by ASA but distributed by CMC. The headers to the packages were so nice I decided to keep them. Note the minor league cap worn by Mays.

The backs all had the same offer on the back. The address is a private house in Huntington, L.I.

The cards all came lightly glued to paper, but 38 years of glue meant some sticky backs. I put them all in penny sleeves so they wouldn't stick to each other.

Two of the themes most prominent in these sets were guest appearances by other stars, and surprising uniforms for the players. I won't do every guest appearance because there are too many - Ted Williams, Stan Musial, several Mickey Mantle and Roberto Clemente appearances, etc. I will try to cover each time a surprising uniform pops up.

HANK AARON

Here's the HAMMER with the Jacksonville Braves in 1953. Geraghty was a long-time minor league manager.

Error card - Bob Hazle's name was misspelled.

This came out a little blurry, but it's a cool shot of the scoreboard after Aaron's 712th home run.

This says 1958 but I believe it's 1957, as this photo is in the '58 Topps set.

YOGI BERRA

There were several Old Timers Day photos in these sets, this is the oldest. I haven't seen many 1960s Yankee Old Timers Day photos, so this was a treat.

Fun 1970's photo, you don't see older Bill Dickey on a card very often.

I recognized this photo as soon as I saw it.

Here's Berra as a Mets manager.

JOE DIMAGGIO

The SF Seals were one of the greatest minor league teams of all time.

Lou Gehrig on a card is always a win, but I was also drawn to the detail of the fans on the stands, something you don't always see in photos this old.

This was actually 1952, DiMaggio didn't retire until December 1951. I thought a bicycle was a strange going-away present but it was actually for his son. Here's a link to the long list of gifts Joe got that day.

Very few Oakland A's DiMaggio cards.

This is an error, definitely not 1978. That's the year Billy Martin was fired a few days before Old Timer's Day, then announced to the crowd on Old Timer's Day that he would be returning in 1980. The clips from that game are pretty well known, at least to Yankee fans, and Martin was clean-shaven. This looked to me like Shea Stadium and sure enough, it's 1975, when the Yankees, playing their home games at Shea, announced the hire of Martin as their manager before the game. A photo almost identical to this one appeared in the next day's New York Times.

More to come . . .